Sleeping at Last

Last week was full of fun and excitement. On Saturday, Rock Harbor hosted a "community" concert in HIU's auditorium. The headlining band was Sleeping at Last, which coincidentally, I discovered and fell in love with a few years ago. In an effort to just reach out to the Fullerton community, Rock Harbor teamed up with a unique concert promoter called Sounds Like a Movement. It was founded by a guy who attends Rock Harbor. The idea behind this organization is to promote community development through hooking up bands with venues and audiences at a cheap price. That way bands can get their music exposed, hosts can get their venues exposed (such as HIU), and people can come together and listen to good music.

I had a unique opportunity to serve at this event because I was asked to run sound for the night. Because Rock Harbor was helping put on the show, we used our portable sound equipment for the house. This was an amazing experience for me not only because I got to help out with an event happening in my community but also because this was my first time mixing in a concert/performance setting. I had the task of mixing for three difference performing artists who had particular "sounds." It was an exciting challenge to say the least.

I was also fortunate enough to work with very friendly, patient, and understanding people in the bands. I've heard horror stories about bands being picky and difficult to work with - even downright rude to sound people.; and being a portable church with a portable sound system, I knew it was not going to sounds as good as a well-tuned house system. Fortunately, the bands understood our circumstances and were able to work with us the best they could.

Sonically, mixing for Sleeping at Last was a little different than mixing for the worship teams at Rock Harbor. For one, the band was only three-piece and often played to a click track with prerecorded stringed instruments. Most of the time Rock Harbor bands are at least five-piece and never use click tracks. Sleeping at Last's "sound" was much more dark and ambient than Rock Harbor's as well. They liked their drums and bass guitar to be dark and boomy, usually leaving out a lot of highs. They didn't play hard, driving beats often either. Most of the time the drums and bass were low-key. The lead singer would play his piano or acoustic guitar; and if he played electric, it was mostly ambient. Learning to mix for a different sound than I was used to helped me grow significantly as a mixer.

At the end of the night, I felt confident in saying that I was able to provide a solid mix. I thoroughly enjoyed mixing to one of my favorite bands and seeing my two communities united together for one night.

Thankful

Last night was another great night at the Fullerton campus. It was my second time playing bass and it was a blast. I am continuously amazed and blessed to be a part of what's happening at Rock Harbor. I've been interning here for over ten months now, and I still get excited when Sundays roll around. Although this is ideally how internships should be, it seems like a number of my friends' internships were lacking in one way or another. I am truly lucky to be a part of one that has taught me practical skills, has invested in me as a ministry leader, has been sensitive to never burning me out, and has always gone out of their way to show their appreciation for my involvement. I have not seen many churches who are able to reach all of these criteria at such high standards, and for that reason I have much respect for the leaders of this church and their pursuit to equip people to serve in the Kingdom of God.

A Good Routine

I am kind of at a loss about what to talk about in this entry. Things have been going great and smoothly. I was fortunate enough to have Easter Sunday off and visit Jessica in Washington, D.C. the week before; but now that I am back on schedule, I've realized how well things have settled in for me in Fullerton. This doesn't necessarily mean I'm not being challenged or growing in my internship. On the contrary, I feel like I'm learning more about leadership every week. I just feel like I've reached a place in my internship where much of my learning and growing now comes from experience.

When I first started my internship, I needed to be taught how to do things. I had to be shown how to run the sound board, how to work the lighting console, how to use the lyrics program. I had the supervision of my leaders, and the training I received was personal and intentional. Since moving to the Fullerton campus back in February, I have been transitioning into a position where my mentors don't necessarily look over my shoulder every moment. They don't give me teaching lessons at every possible opportunity. I'm experienced enough now to know how everything works. Now I am putting that experience into practice and am continually being sharpened by every new experience I encounter.

So this may be a more vague journal entry than my previous ones, but that's because I have no specific reflection for this week. Consider this to be more of a "bigger picture" post.